TeamCIPHeR.
is a group of friends and racing enthusiasts from the San Francisco Bay
Area that have a different perspective. We are different from most popular
car crews, because you will not find the usual mix of Integras, Eclipses
or Civics in our ranks. Our team members have a passion for modifying and
racing old skool Toyotas. We have racing in our blood. Some of the older
members of the group can recall racing the 74 Corolla Levins (TE27 Mangos)
at the Ortigas Street Drags back home in the Philippines, while others
got their addiction to the old skool heritage from the wangan highway battle
and "dori dori" (drift) scene back in Japan, where the AE86 Toyota Trueno
(Hachiroku) is "the king of the winding road." Yet others came to the group
as hardcore, dedicated race fiends, hitting every race event in sight,
especially the SF Region SCCA Championship Series Autocross events. The
passion for the classic old skool Toyotas is one that we all share, a passion
that is clearly visible when we run the SFR SCCA autocrosses, SCCA/NASA
road race events, import drags, highway battles, late night drifting, and
yes, even an occasional street race here or there. (sssh! don't tell!)

We got the name "cipher"
in early 1995, when some of the founding members used to "rock ciphers"
(freestyle rhymes) over hip hop instrumentals at house parties and clubs.
Whenever we were all together, whether we were representing at a hip hop
function (da projex, phoenix jazz club)... chillin at a house party...
driving on the freeway (the original sessions in the GTR "jitter")... or
even when we were at the local grocery store (safeway on branham and ross)...
whenever someone said, "yo, wanna spark a ciphe?" we would get a certain
thrill out of comin off the top of the dome with our own unique esoteric
flavor of artistic expression. Over the years, the thrill that we got from
hip hop culture evolved into a thrill for racing culture, and TeamCIPHeR.
was born. (Concepts In Performance Handling Executed in Racing)
And whether that thrill comes from the precise execution and selection
of a late apex, controlled drifting on a windy road, representing the team
at a Showoff, or flying straight down the 1320 in search of enlightenment,
racing is our business.trdtoyota
racing developmenttoyota racing developmenttoyota racing developmenttoyota
racing developmenttoyota racing developmenttoyota racing developmenttrdtrdtoyota
racing developmenttoyota racing developmenttoyota racing developmenttoyota
racing developmenttoyota racing developmenttoyota racing developmenttrdhistory.

The
first generation got together a few years ago (early 1995) as a small group
of close friends that enjoyed fixing up our cars, kickin it at race shops
(peepin Greg's Option videos and ridiculous prices at RacerX, looking at
Japanese Magazines at Kinokuniya in Yaohan, hearing shop after shop tell
us there aren't any aftermarket parts for our cars, why don't we buy Civics
instead) and going to the Northern Cali street races. That's right,
the street races! Every Friday and Saturday night, we'd meet up and head
over to the Lucky's at Berryessa or Taco Bell, Arco, or Denny's across
the street. The whole concept of TeamCIPHeR. was started at around
this time by Antonio Alvendia, Ryan Pollace, Mike Kim, and Nito Labrador.
Once we got more heavily involved in real SCCA racing and Import Race events,
we met many new people that supported us along the way, and more people
that had the same racing philosophies as us (example: Toyota is better
than Honda). These people would eventually join our small group because
they knew we were doing something right and stood apart from the rest.
We've also lost contact with some of our original team members along the
way, but the real heads know wussup and continue to represent their CIPHeR.trdtoyota
racing developmenttoyota racing developmenttoyota racing developmenttoyota
racing developmenttoyota racing developmenttoyota racing developmenttrdtoyota
racing developmenttoyota racing developmenttoyota racing developmenttoyota
racing developmenttoyota racing developmenttoyota racing developmentrespects.

As any one of our team members
would tell you, we prefer to dress up our cars in "the old skool Japanese
style, but with a little bit of Filipino flav." We could not achieve
this without help from of our supporters:

Calvin and the guys at GraphTech
Signworks in San Francisco, Joji Luz and the crew from Toysport, Herb Policarpio
from Mike Miller Toyota (Southern Cali), Sam Hsu from Motul Synthetic Oil,
Chris Q, Sean T, and Carrie M from TRD USA, Rodney from TMR M'zine, Philip
Sy and Kurt from AutoPlus SF, the members of Driving Club AE86, our friends
from the Toyota Mods List (www.toyota-mods.org), Tito and the crew from
Red Star Racing in Hayward, Arnold from Formula Motorsports, Gani's Garage,
Ling Nam, ETG Race Fabrications, Jessie Miran and Jammin Productions, Joel
and Tru Image, George from www.importsociety.com, Yoshi at Japanese Automotive,
Tyler from Turbonetics, Yamashita Koichi from Car Factory Goodline, Oda
Hiroaki from Crystal Body Yokohama, Ogawa Yoshiyasu from Auto Gallery Yokohama,
Jen at Turbo Magazine, Pssst Magazine and the Genesis guys, all the models
featured on the site, and all the stores who let me return stuff so I can
buy car parts! Also, much respect to everyone who believed in us and supported
us in our endeavors. TeamCIPHeR forever...